Warrior PvP guide
Introduction In PvP, many classes will avoid melee combat which will make defensive equipment significantly less usable, as well as protection tree specificied talents. Of the three warrior talent trees Arms, Fury, and Protection, currently successful PvP warriors do mostly Arms/Fury with Mortal Strike, Axe Specialization, Two-Handed Specialization, Cruelty, Charge, Overpower, Tactical Mastery, and against many classes deal whopping amounts of damage with +% chance to crit trinkets and armor. Nowadays (it wasn't always so) the warrior is a very capable player killer. His/her strength lies in the offensive nature of the class, and the ability to charge into a fight and deal a lot of damage fast without having to rely on 20 different skills or spell. The warrior always does damage. That combined with the excellent defence that is the warriors trademark, makes for a somewhat unique but very effective pvp class, that however requires a bit of training to master. The problem is often to avoid being kited by more ranged oriented classes. For this combat controlling abilities such as hamstring and intercept are excellent remedies. General PvP Tactics In PvP, warriors primarily focus on: #Keeping enemies within melee attack range (and facing the enemy). #Proper counters to enemies abilities, or proper usage of ability-attacks. Against ranged classes, (Mage, Hunter, Warlock, Priest, Druid) the major theme in the battle is whether the warrior can keep the target within, or at least close to, melee range. While in melee, the warrior should be dealing significantly more damage to the low armor foe. Additionally, any non-instant spells cast by the warrior's opponent are in danger of being interrupted. If the target is kept within melee range, the secondary requirement for a warrior win revolves around properly interrupting key spells. Against melee classes, (Rogue, Warrior, Shaman, Paladin), the warrior tactics are much more class-specific. The common tool against all melee enemies is Disarm. This ability will deny enemy abilities that require a melee weapon (there are many of these for these melee classes), as well as maximize damage differential in the warrior's favor. The timing of Disarming a rogue is critical to preventing of the rogue's finishing move, whereas against Shaman and Paladin, you just want to get in this move as often as you can. Other than Disarm, increased melee combat means more "swings" of the melee weapons by both warrior and foe, providing more opportunities to use the high-value/rage warrior counterattacks of Overpower and Revenge (Revenge is only worthwhile if stun-talent added, and can be caused by shield-block). These two counterattacks can be the difference if they are used within their relatively small time windows (management of weapons and stances required). How to Kill a Rogue Notable Rogue Abilities: *Vanish (Rend damage-over-time breaks stealth) *Stun Attacks: Gouge, Kidney Shot *High Damage Finishing Moves: Eviscerate *Weapon Poisons: Crippling Poison If you have it available, Retaliation. Rogues do ton of strikes for low damage each, with Retaliation and a big two hander, you are doing the same attack rate, but BIG damage, toe-to-toe Retaliation is basically an "I win" button vs. a rogue. However an animation is now added for this cooldown ability, which will signal a Rogue to stop attacking. A stun-lock rogue, however is a different story. If, however, you want to beat rogues more than once every half hour, use a two handed weapon and overpower as much as possible. Rogues dodge quite a bit because they have bunches of Agility which simply makes them dodge. You can use sunder armor and other instant attacks to 'probe' for a dodge. The improved overpower talent is amazingly effective, especially with a slow two handed weapon. Disarm can also be useful against rogues, but overpower is bread and butter in a rogue fight. Furthermore, many rogues will attempt to backstab you, or use any other attack through Stealthing, if you get your timing right, you can use a Demoralizing Shout or any other Area of Effect spell to remove their Stealth, if successful, you will have a large step ahead from the Rogue, since it's a large part of their Stun Lock tactics. Using Defensive Stance to lower the damage from their Backstab will also give you an easy 10% less damage from their attack. Rogues' Gouge and Sap abilities are often used to buy them time, either to kill another target or regenerate their energy. If hit by either of these abilities while in Berserker Stance, you can activate Berserker Rage, giving you immunity to these Disorient effects and breaking you free to continue fighting. Since a rogue's lower armor makes it difficult for them to beat a warrior in a straight up fight, they often make good use of stuns and disorients to get in extra hits--by breaking a Gouge, you can often turn the battle in your favor. How to Kill a Warrior Notable Warrior Abilities (Which you should know): Warrior abilities are a guessing game as to what their talent build is, in order to guess effectively you must base your assumptions on what gear they are wearing as well as what weapons they are using (or by the less reasonable way of engaging them and hoping they will reveal their higher talent tree abilities). In general, a warrior using a two hander will be Arms, dual wielding will be Fury, and a one hander and shield will be Protection. Arms/Fury Build Abilities: *Mortal Strike *Piercing Howl *Improved Hamstring Arms/Fury Warriors are specialized in dealing damage and dealing damage in quick bursts with a heavy two-handed weapon. It's like getting hit with a train, hitting rewind and getting hit with a train again. Fury Build Abilities: Fury Warriors generally take advantage of the new Dual-Wield Specialization talent, and therefore have huge rage generation potential. Expect them to deal constant damage and try to sustain movement. The Fury tree has some slight problems with it, but the fury warrior will generally act as a rogue, trying to stay out of your attack range. A hamstring will put you at a better odd to kill them, watch out for fury tree "When the victim of a critical strike" talents, just deal damage. Protection Build Abilities: *Last Stand *Improved Revenge *Concussion Blow *Shield Slam Protection Warriors take damage, and that's about all they do, no spectacular damage potential, they have limited use of stuns, simply do more damage to them then they do to you and it will be an easy win. Also, don't forget retaliation. It can be incredibly useful against warriers, as essentially the only way they do damage is in melee. And if they are taking all the damage they are dealing plus what you are dishing out... How to Kill a Priest Notable Priest Abilities: * Power Word: Shield * Mind Flay * Holy Fire * Devouring Plague * Shadowguard * Prayer of Healing * Shadow Word: Pain * Desperate Prayer * Flash Heal * Psychic Scream * Mind Blast * Mind Control Holy/Discipline priests (i.e. pure healers) are usually overmatched by a Warrior, but Shadow priests are a different story. With the ability to jump out of their Fear using Berserker Rage and with use of Pummel to stop casting, combined with high physcial damage that is the bane of casters it would seem that Warriors would have an easy time of them, but the combination of the defenses of a Priest (especially Power Word: Shield) combined with respectable damage of a type that warriors cannot mitigate can often make for an almost unbeatable combination. Beating on a Preist whose sheild is up and who is draining the Warrior's life from behind it using Mind Flay is the definition of futility - the Shadow Priest can damage the Warrior, but the Warrior is powerless to respond. Neverthless with a little luck, judicious use of Pummel to stop the larger, longer cast-time heals, and Bloodrage to recover from the loss of Rage while the Priest is bubbled, they can be defeated. As is usual with casters, a Warrior should try to get the jump on them with an initial Charge, fight always in Berserker Stance, and Hamstring them to keep them from getting out of melee range. How to Kill a Warlock Against ranged classes with pets -- Hunters and Warlocks -- the warrior will be forced to deal with a pet while running down the opponent. If the pet has closed to within melee range of you, it will continue to do damage to you while you chase the main opponent. Remember, Melee attacks are on auto, and continue even while you are moving. You should never fight the pet for a prolonged period of time because the ranged attack of the opponent can cause much more damage, and if you kill the pet but not the owner, the owner will have beaten you. However, the pet melee means that you will be facing attacks while you are running down the opponent. Most ranged opponents will need to be standing still (thus you will be closing on them distance-wise) to do damage to you. Therefore, it is critical to affect the pet via hamstring, fear, stun, or something else so that you do not take too much damage while you are chasing the opponent. If you have the Enrage talent, you may decide to let the pet keep attacking you until it scores a crit. You probably can't kill a skilled warlock. That should not, however, stop you from trying. If the warlock is using an imp, it may be worth your while to kill it. Imps can do high amounts of damage, but they have very low HP. Beware of a skilled warlock with a Succubus out as well - chain seduce can be unpleasant, and effectively remove you from the fight. Berserker stance is key, but you should probably close in with a charge if possible. If not, do it the old fashioned way: run. He will DoT you and fear you, but your berserker rage will break the fear. Hamstring as soon as possible after his first fear (If you want to PvP without tactical mastery, roll another class). The second fear should be ridden out. It will put you far enough away to intercept. By this time you'll probably be dead. If not, then melee to victory. Against Warlocks, or any other fear class such as priests, the Undead warrior has a clear advantage with their racial ability to remove the fear effect (Will of the Forsaken). As with the Tactical Mastery comment above, if you want to be a PvP warrior - roll Undead (or Tauren for the War Stomp). How to Kill a Mage Notable Mage Abilities: * Blink - instant cast, 15 sec cooldown, teleports caster 20 meters in front of the caster. frees the caster from stuns or bonds (roots) * Ice Barrier (31 point Frost talent) - instant cast, 30 sec cooldown, absorb next 838 (at lvl 60) damage to caster, lasts 1 minute. While the shield holds, spells will not be interrupted. * Ice Armor - instant cast, lasts 30 minutes, increases caster's armor by 560, enemy melee attacks have a chance to cause the attacker to have movement slowed by 30%, and attack slowed by 20% for 5 sec. * Frost Nova - instant cast, 25 sec cooldown, enemies near the caster take 71-79 frost damage, and are rooted for 8 seconds. * Polymorph - 1.5 sec cast, Transforms the enemy into a sheep, forcing it to wander around for up to 50 sec. While wandering, the sheep cannot attack or cast spells but will regenerate health very quickly. Any damage will transform the target back into its normal form. Only one target can be polymorphed at a time. Only works on Beasts, Humanoids and Critters. * Cone of Cold - instant cast, targets in a cone in front of the caster take 335 to 365 frost damage and are slowed to 50% of their normal movement speed for 8 sec. * Frost Bolt - 2.5 sec cast (with talents), deals 429-463 damage, reduces movement of target by 40%. * Pyroblast (11 point Fire talent) - 6 sec cast, deals 716-890 damage plus 268 damage over 12 secs. * Presence of Mind (20 point Arcane talent) - instant cast, 3 min cooldown, any mage spell with a casting time less than 10 seconds will cast instantly. * Ice Block (21 point Frost talent) - instant cast, 5 min cooldown, encases mage in a block of ice protecting them from all forms of damage for 10 seconds and removes all negative effects (stuns, roots, disorents, magic, poison, disease, etc.) Mage cannot move or cast spells during this time. * Arcane Power (31 point Arcane talent) - instant cast, 3 min cooldown, when activated increases mage spell damage by 30% while also costing 30% more mana to cast. Effect lasts for 15 secs. Generally, a warrior will lose to a mage because mages have many tools to escape melee range. Once separated, mages can then rely on snares and instant cast damage spells that never give the warrior a chance to effectively close the distance gap. If they lose their distance, a mage may choose to use Ice Barrier (if talented) or Mana Shield so that their spells that take casting time cannot be interrupted via damage. Shield Bash and Pummel will still stop their casting regardless. Despite this, here are concepts that work: * Intercept is best used if done in reaction to blink, so that the mage cannot blink away immediately in response to intercept. Unfortunately, the mage will have to blink first - hopefully in response to a charge you've gotten off. A mage may actually blink *into* you in order to prevent the intercept and confuse you, so be ready for this. * If this can't be done, at least try to intercept in order to interrupt a spell being casted. * If you are far from the caster and are going to take damage anyway, try to be in defensive stance. The 10% reduction in damage also applies to spell damage. * If a mage is casting a big damage spell and you don't have intercept, and are too far away be able to run to the must-be-standing-still-while-channelling mage, you may be able to run in the opposite direction, as spells will fail if the target exits a maximum distance (which may be larger than the original targetting distance -- this tactic also works in PvE, though the distance required will sometimes be longer). * Mages have Arcane/Fire/Frost magic. All do damage, but have different purposes. Frost slows you down, Fire is the most one-time damage and has damage over time (like 800 damage pyroblast, with extra 250 damage over time) after a long channeling (6 second channel), while Arcane is designed mostly for utility and "tricks" with the only damage spell being Arcane Missiles, which does about the same damage incrementally (220 damage every second over 5 seconds). MC gear will help a good deal with resistances against Fire mages, and if you can manage to gather a lot of Frost resistance you can resist the slowing effects and Frost spells entirely (Frost are binary spells which either resist fully or not, unlike Fire and Arcane which can have partial resistances). The Frost school also does substantially less damage than Fire, but the tradeoff is that Frost also uses a lot less mana. Thus, if you're engaging a primarily Frost-spec Mage, each individual spell will do less damage, but he will be able to cast a lot more of them before his mana runs out than with Fire. Particularly frustrating are Arcane/Fire or Fire/Arcane mages. These don't depend on range at all, rather their ability to "nuke" you as quickly as they can by using Blast Wave to slow you, instant cast Fire Blasts, Polymorph + Pyroblast, Arcane Power + Presence of Mind for high-damage, instant spells, and other variations therein. In general they don't even need to try to get out of range as they're lowering your health much faster than you're lowering theirs. You can't interrupt them except by Concussion Blow/War Stomp because they aren't casting any spells. In duels, these mages will often run at you before the duel has even started - if they start at melee range, you don't get to charge. This doesn't work as well post-60 as warriors get very powerful two handers that can 2-3 shot a mage, however it's lethal pre-60 where warriors generally aren't as geared out. The only tactic I've found that works against certain classes (Mage, Hunter, for example) is as follows: Get in the inital Charge. In general, if you can do this and follow up with a Hamstring to snare them before the mage Blinks away or the hunter invariably hits you with Scatter Shot, you have a chance. It keeps them slowed down enough for you to recover and Intercept them, re-apply Hamstring, and try your best to keep them in range. A mage will most likely Frost Nova and Polymorph you, in which case your only hope is to have the Scout/Private PvP trinket. Otherwise the mage will gain range and nuke you down, or kite you to death. Certain Death: Polymorph - Arcane Power - +dmg trinkets - Presence of Mind(POM) - Pyroblast - Fire Blast These are known as "3 minute mages" as they rely on Arcane Power or trinkets and PoM to do massive burst damage every 3 minutes (cooldowns). A mage utilizing this with MC level gear can do roughly 4000 damage before you can even react. How to Kill a Druid Druids are highly overrated in PvP. Although the armour modifier for Bear form is large, they are still only able to wear leather. In addition, the majority of Feral spec Druids tend to favour Cat form, which is substantially more fragile than Bear. Balance is by far the most effective Druid tree for PvP, but most of them don't believe this, so they don't use it. A Cat form Feral Druid is unlikely to cause you significant problems. As with all casters, shield bash is crucial to fighting a druid. If you are outside, the spell to look out for is Entangling Roots, which will root you in place. In melee combat, A warrior should always beat a druid. Things to watch out for, druids (in bear form) have an ability to stun you for a few seconds. Expect them to use this as they are getting low in hitpoints. They stun you, change back to caster, heal, then back to bear. To counter this, make sure you are in berserker stance (ideally have your rank 2 PvP trinket for breaking stun ready and equipped). When they stun you, hit your trinket. When their hands turn green as they begin to case heal ... pummel them to stop the heal. Blood rage if necessary to get the rage for this, as that heal will likely mean death for you. Also if you are MS spec, keep that on them, that 50% healing reduction goes a LONG way in winning the battle as druids have several Heal Over Time spells, that your MS will nicely gimp. Beware of one trick they sometimes use to get use to waste our pummel. They hit their hearthstone for a couple of seconds (same green hands effect), we pummel them THEN they heal. Counter: do damage in any way, this will interrupt the hearthstone, if they are STILL green handing it, pummel. How to Kill a Hunter The advice for fighting warlocks applies to hunters as well, as does the bloodrage/intercept strategy used against mages. Keep in mind that chasing a hunter who is stunning/dazing you is an entirely futile exercise until intercept goes away; switch to a shield, shield wall if necessary, and build up rage on the pet while doing what you can to mitigate damage until intercept recycles. Another option is to try to get close enough to where you can get off an intimidating shout. If you get the jump on them it's even easier, if not you can still get this to work. Make sure you are targeting them and not their pet, this will get their pet out of your hair for more than enough time to punish them. Most of the time they freak out that their pet is gone so all you got to do is hamstring, disarm whatever you have to do, MS, execute. It's that easy. If they get the drop on you do like he said above, build up rage intercept. That's one of your strongest weapons against the hunter. It's all about tactical mastery gents, if you don't believe me keep on trying to win battles with 1/3 of your char. It is a must. With the coming patch (21st Dec '04) it should be even easier to intercept. Bloodrage will now be less of a health hit, and you'll get enough rage to intercept instantly plus 10 more over time. How to Kill a Paladin From a Paladin's point of view, warriors are probably their easiest opponents. Should you be fighting a Paladin, you can't afford any mistakes. You need to keep them in front of you in order to maximize your damage output, and try to stay behind them to receive the lowest amount of damage possible. Keep them Hamstring and have Rend applied at all times. If you are an Arms spec warrior, Mortal Strike won't do anything for you unless they heal before putting on Blessing of Protection or Divine Shield. If the Paladin puts up any of their "Protection" shields, stay back about 10 yards from them and bandage - this way you should be out of range for their Hammer of Justice and Consecration (which will interrupt your bandage). When the Paladin comes out of their shield, you should be far enough away from them to Charge; a paladin fight is all about rage generation. Without an ample supply of rage to fuel your abilities, you will be easily killed. Paladins are easily the most durable class, but also have the least DPS. They can survive for long periods of time with stuns, invulnerability, plate armor, and other abilities (e.g. Lay on Hands: Restores the Paladin to full health, and gives them 550 mana, 1 hour cooldown, lowered to 40 mins with talents. This drains all of the Paladin's mana but can even be cast at 1 mana. Luckily, most Paladins use this very rarely, saving it for a critical moment. If the Paladin had to use this to win, consider yourself to be the winner). Keep in mind that since 1.9, 31 points in Holy tree is growing in popularity, allowing a Paladin to use the spell "Holy Shock", which will interrupt your bandage from 20 yards. Which spec a Paladin is using can often be discovered by looking at their gear: A Paladin wearing a 2h and low mana gear such as BG-rewards are likely to be retribution spec'd or protection spec'd. If they wear a shield and 1h they are either protection or holy-spec'd, the latter being more common. Also, Paladins with epic dungeon gear, Judgement and/or Lawbringer, are very often holy-spec'd. Notes: * MS MUST be applied whenever they are about to heal. * Keep Rend on them. * Keep Hamstring on them. * Keep them in front of you. * Stay behind them. * Try to keep them disarmed. * A Paladin survives based on their mana. A Paladin with no mana is a dead Paladin. Most of the times you are able to beat a Paladin, he either made a big mistake or understimated you. If they ever try to heal without their precious shields, punish them for their foolishness! Should they stun, just use your PvP-trinket, then pummel them immediately. Don't try to do anything else; what you need to do is silence them, not interrupt their spell! Remember, all the Paladin's spells are holy, so if you silence them, they can't use any of their shields, giving you the opportunity to finish them off before they even realize what is happening. If you're losing (which happens more often than not), there is really nothing you can do other than fight to your death and try to kill them. Watch out for their Hammer of Wrath from 25 yards, if they try to do it either pummel them, stand behind them, or Concussion Blow them if you have it. Your survival hinges on your ability to prevent this killing blow. How to Kill a Shaman A basic strategy is charge/intercept, hamstring, stay in melee range and kill the Shaman fast. Shaman have a number of abilities that are difficult to deal with. Watch out for Fire Totems, you should kill these totems before they do a moderate amount of damage. A Shaman's Frost Shock is an effective instant cast spell that slows your movement and does minimal to moderate damage. Shock timers are very short (~6 seconds). Shaman also have effective combat heals. While not a shaman ability, the Tauren racial ability Warstomp is worth mentioning. The vast majority of Shaman are Tauren, so you will likely see this ability used frequently. It can be very effective in close quarters. Throughout levels 1-50, a skilled Shaman will probably beat a warrior. Level 51-59, Shaman start to balance with other classes, and the better player (or more lucky) warrior will win. At Level 60, a well played warrior should never lose to a shaman (with equal equipment levels). Category:Tactics Category:Warriors Category:PvP